Memories and Questions
by Anna Louisa
Summary: "And Reyna. Definitely there'd been a girl named Reyna. He wasn't sure what she'd meant to him, but the memory made him question what he felt about Piper - and wonder if he was doing something wrong. The problem was, he liked Piper a lot." - Jason Grace, The Lost Hero. Which just begs the question...what was that memory?


**Hello! I wrote this awhile ago and forgot about it, then went searching through all my documents, found it again, and decided to publish it. I hope you all like it, I'm quite fond of it myself :****)**

**Quick Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING! All rights go to Rick Riordan (evil troll that he is), Taylor Swift, Liz Rose, and Big Machine Records**

"And Reyna. There'd definitely been a girl named Reyna. He wasn't sure what she'd meant to him, but the memory made him question what he felt about Piper - and wonder if he was doing something wrong." - Jason Grace, _The Lost Hero_

Which just begs the question..._what was that memory?_ Well, this is my version of it :) Based on this line: "Cause there we are again in the middle of the night / we're dancing around the kitchen in the refrigerator light." - Taylor Swift, _All Too Well_

* * *

_It was just after midnight on August 25th. Jason and Reyna had been working in the principia on new plans for restoring Camp Jupiter for...six, seven hours? Jason had lost count. Despite the endless amount of papers, neither he nor Reyna suggested stopping. They had a duty to the camp. And so they worked...and worked...and worked, until finally, around 2 A.M., they had something acceptably logical cobbled into place._ "_I think that will work," Reyna declared, slumping back in her chair and rubbing her eyes. "It's probably riddled with errors, but I can't find any right now."_

"_Me neither," Jason replied, stretching and yawning. He turned up the volume on the little radio they kept on the table. Music relaxed both of them, and right now, they could use some relaxing. A gentle guitar ballad floated out of the speakers and seemingly filled the entire room. Jason and Reyna smiled at each other._

"_Tim McGraw," Reyna said softly. _

"_Care to dance?" Jason asked. She hesitated, evaluating him, and then nodded. They joined hands and began to waltz slowly around the principia to the song. It was their favorite song, both of them, and tradition for them to dance to it._

_Usually, though, it was a waltz punctuated with whispers and giggles as they talked during the song, but this time, it was silent. Reyna laid her head on Jason's shoulder and sighed, completely content. Instinctively, Jason held her tighter, wanting to protect her from the outside world, her stress, and all the problems they faced. It wasn't the first time he'd felt such an urge, but this was the strongest._

_They stopped waltzing, and instead just stood with their heads close together, hands clasped, revolving slowly on the spot as the song ended._

"_You said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night, I said, 'that's a lie."' The singer ended the song on a low note, and the last strains of music fell on the two figures standing so close together they could have been one._

_The music was over, but neither of them moved. Jason didn't want to let Reyna go. Her warmth, her happiness, so rare, was radiating off her like light from the Sun. He knew it was the first time in a while she'd been so happy, and he wasn't going to be the one to burst her bubble. _

_When she finally pulled away, their eyes met, lips, noses, faces inches apart. There was a fire in her dark eyes he'd been seeing a lot lately, one that made his stomach curl into knots and his toes tingle with anticipation._

"_Thanks for the dance, Jason," she whispered._

"_You're welcome, Reyna," he replied, his voice equally low. He could sense that something hung in the balance here, something that shouldn't happen. He knew her face was getting closer, but he wasn't sure who was leaning in - him or her. Her eyes were fluttering closed, and so were his, and all he could think was, 'This is wrong, but it feels so right.'_

_And then her lips touched his, soft, gentle as a whisper, warm, and so familiar, comforting, and yet totally alien at the same time. It was brief, only a few seconds, but it meant the world to Jason._

_When she pulled away, he opened his eyes to find her closer to him than she'd been before the kiss. Did he do that, or had she moved closer? He didn't know. He couldn't think._

_Then Reyna dropped her arms. "Come on, Jason, let's get home."_

_That was it. No second kiss, no explanation, nothing. But Jason was far too tired and confused and happy to care, so he helped her gather up the things. There was an awkward moment when their hands bumped and Jason sent shocks up both their arms, but they just laughed. It wasn't the first time. Little did they know that it would be the last._

_They walked home in silence, their fingers entwined. This wasn't romantic at all, it was just something they did. Tonight, though, there was something in the way Reyna held his hand that made Jason certain she didn't regret the kiss in the principia. That was good, because he didn't, either. _

"_Goodnight," she said when they reached the villas._

"_Night," he replied, and then, on a whim, leaned in to kiss her cheek. "See you in the morning," he whispered, then hurried inside before she could smack him. As he dumped the praetor papers on the coffee table in the living room and bounded up the stairs, he couldn't keep the big, goofy grin off his face. Today had gone much better than he thought it would. Especially the part with Reyna. _

_Finally, maybe they could figure out where they stood. Jason had been wondering about that for a long time, and he knew Reyna had been, too. The problem was, he hadn't been sure, before now, of whether or not she liked him. Now, he knew, she most likely did. It would be simple going from here, right?_

* * *

Wrong. The very next day, Jason and Reyna got in their biggest fight ever. It involved lightning strikes, water, breakable glass plates, many thrown knives, and much too many tears. No one was quite sure what the two were arguing about, but whatever it was, it resulted in a two-week silent treatment from both sides, and after Octavian threatened to remove them as praetors, a stiff, formal tone used with each other that was worse than the silent treatment. However, it was Jason and Reyna, so they'd begun to patch things up by mid-October.

Unfortunately, Jason Grace vanished right in the middle of making things up with Reyna, leaving them just as confused about where they stood.

* * *

Jason remembered all of this, but he had no idea what it all meant. He only knew that it meant he would have to talk to Reyna. She was the only one who really knew what had happened. But Piper...what was he to do about Piper? He hadn't seen Reyna for about six months, whereas he had seen a rather lot of Piper everyday. He couldn't deny that Piper was pretty, violent, and really, really nice.

But it was wrong to get involved with her when he had Reyna back home. Reyna, who may or may not be his girlfriend, who he'd kissed once and then fought with and not spoken to for nearly a month. So where did that leave him?

In the end, he chose to be with Piper. Just for the six months. After watching her almost beat up Leo when he nearly exploded the engine, he couldn't deny that he had feelings for her. Reyna had seemed so far away then.

Now, as he stood on the deck of the Argo II, six months into a relationship with Piper, Reyna was suddenly a very real factor in his life again. Not for the first (nor last) time, he cursed himself for not waiting to find out what was going on with the two of them. It had been logically wrong to get involved with Piper, but being with her felt so right.

Not like being with Reyna felt. Being with Reyna was something along the lines of trying to change your mind after already being thrown into a freefall, unable to fly.

And being with Piper was like picking daisies in the sunshine - happy, carefree, innocent. Not a life-threatening activity.

Reyna made him feel.

Piper was who he was supposed to be with.

Wait, what?

Jason clutched his head. Where had that thought come from? Olympus only knew. He put all thoughts of Reyna and Piper out of his head. He needed to firstly reconcile the Greeks and Romans. His love life could be sorted out later.

He wondered briefly which one would be a bigger task.


End file.
